Families often have two working parents and a wealth of options when it comes to retirement saving plans, medical plans, and life insurance policies. Many families delegate the management of these plans to one family member who, in some cases, may not be the plan participant. As more and more families gain access to the world wide web, Human Resource (HR) portals are becoming a popular means for employers and employee benefit plan providers to communicate and interact with employees and plan participants. By providing a single point of entry into numerous applications for employees and plan participants, HR portals enhance the accessibility of personal information, reduce call center volume, and allow for frequently asked questions to be investigated and answered by the plan participants themselves.
HR portals allow users to perform functions such as changing addresses stored in the database, requesting Personal Identification Numbers for access to accounts, or changing the asset allocations in a 401(k) plan.